At long last, LCCC invests to accommodate its decade of growth

Lorain County Community College has stomached more than a decade of enrollment growth but until recently has invested little in expanding its facilities to accommodate hordes of new students.

That's changing.

The community college based in Elyria is in the midst of a roughly $65 million construction and renovation program to expand its reach in Lorain County and to modernize an aging campus that was built for 6,600 students but now serves more than 13,000.

The college's latest — and most expensive — project is a $21.5 million, 50,843-square-foot science building expected to break ground this month. The new building will house classroom and lab space and will be the last major project for the foreseeable future, according to Roy Church, who has served as the college's president since 1987.

About $40 million of other projects already are under way. Last year, the university invested $17.5 million to renovate its old library, $12.5 million in a new culinary arts and convergent digital arts building, and $12.5 million for a new satellite campus in North Ridgeville.

“There are some facilities that are just unique to having a reputable, high-quality collegiate environment,” Dr. Church said.

Enrollment at the college had been on an upward trajectory from 1999 until 2010 as the number of students doubled to 13,685 from 6,773. Enrollment, however, fell in 2011 to 13,146.

Dr. Church said he expects enrollment numbers to “soften a bit” over the next five to eight years because the number of students graduating high school in the region continues to decline in the wake of demographic shifts.

Still, Dr. Church said the region's steady transition from a traditional manufacturing economy could continue to nudge enrollment numbers upward as workers look to enhance their skill sets — something that has been a main driver for the college's growth over the last few years.

“That could create a significant amount of growth pressure for us,” Dr. Church said. “Whether that will exceed the diminished population out of high school is still anybody's guess. We're watching and monitoring it each semester.”

Since Lorain County Community College invested so little in its campus over the last decade, the college recently took on a significant amount of debt in a relatively short period of time as it looked to break ground on several construction initiatives.

In the last year alone, Lorain County Community College issued a total of $64.9 million in debt through two bond issuances, bringing the college's total debt load to about $70 million, according to Quentin Potter, the college's vice president for administrative services and treasurer.

Nonetheless, officials said the college is well positioned to handle its mounting obligations, particularly because administrators in recent years have designed their budgets around zero enrollment growth.

“We're in very good financial condition,” Dr. Church said. “We're very conservative in the use of the resources we have, so we keep everything in balance.”

Credit rating agency Moody's Investors Services earlier this year gave Lorain County Community College high marks for its financial performance and noted in a recent report that it expects the college will “maintain its established market position with strong operating performance that provides adequate debt service coverage.”

Moody's calculated the college's three-year average operating margin between fiscal years 2009 and 2011 at 10.2%. Moreover, it assigned the college a high-quality Aa2 rating and an underlying A1 rating on its recent $24.9 million bond issuance, the bulk of which is financing the construction of the new science building.

“I'm extremely confident we'll be able to fulfill (our obligations) going forward and maintain sound fiscal basis,” Dr. Church said.

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